Communication Across the School Day: A Nationwide Teacher Survey on Developmental Language Disorder

Area of Science:

• Speech and Language Pathology
• Educational Psychology
• Developmental Disorders

Background:

• Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) affects children's academic and social development.
• Effective intervention requires collaboration between educators and speech-language pathologists (SLPs).
• Teacher understanding of DLD is crucial for early identification and support.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how U.S. teachers perceive and understand Developmental Language Disorder (DLD).
• To assess teachers' awareness of DLD's impact on students' school experiences.
• To inform advocacy and collaboration efforts between SLPs and teachers.

Main Methods:

• A mixed-methods study utilizing an online survey with 204 teacher responses.
• Quantitative analysis included descriptive statistics and logistic regression for closed-ended questions.
• Qualitative analysis involved summative content analysis of open-ended responses.

Main Results:

• Teachers could identify language-based difficulties for students with DLD but were often unfamiliar with the term 'DLD' and its lifelong nature.
• Recognition of DLD and its educational impact varied by teaching role, grade level, and prior training.
• Teachers expressed uncertainty regarding DLD characteristics and its school-day impact, highlighting a need for clearer understanding.

Conclusions:

• Despite unfamiliarity with the term DLD, teachers accurately identified associated challenges.
• Enhanced DLD awareness and consistent terminology are needed among communication sciences and disorders (CSD) professionals and educators.
• Findings provide practical implications for SLPs and CSD researchers to improve DLD education and support.